HAWAII FIVE-0 1.14 ‘He Kane Hewa ole’

McGarrett and Danno track down the owner of a severed head and uncover a disturbing extortion plot.

by Hilary Rothing Jan 19th, 2011

Episode Title: "He Kane Hewa’ole"

Writers: Peter M. Lenkov and Paul Zbyszewski

Director: Chris Fisher

Story:

Chin-Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) and Kono attempt to make a traffic stop which turns into a high-speed chase. When the car they’re tailing flips over, they find a box containing a severed head. The driver’s last word’s to McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) when he arrives on the scene are "Ming Wa."

Kono learns that the car was rented by a Spencer Owens, who reported it stolen. Owens (Jordan Belfi) claims to know nothing about the dead driver or the head in a box.

With clues from an address found in the GPS and a water sample Dr. Bergman (Masi Oka) took from the body, McGarrett and Danno track down the father of the driver in a Chinese neighborhood. He claims his son was not in any kind of trouble but was offered a thousand dollars to make a delivery, presumably the head in a box. McGarrett and Danno learn that "Ming Wa" is in fact, the driver’s son.

Back at the medical examiner’s office, Dr. Bergman determines that the severed head belongs to a man who was suffering from thyroid cancer. After paying a visit to the Hawaii Medical Center, where he has an uncomfortable run-in with his ex, Malia (Reiko Aylesworth), Chin Ho learns that the John Doe is Henry Duncan, a high school physics teacher.

After searching the ransacked house of Duncan’s wife, the team learns that she’s been kidnapped and her affluent father is dealing with the culprits, outside the law. As proof of their intention to kill his daughter, Nicole, they planned to send along the severed head of her husband. When McGarrett and Danny follow the distraught father to a dock to deliver the ransom, the kidnapper pulls a gun and McGarrett gives chase. He apprehends the kidnapper, who turns out to be Spencer Owens.

McGarrett and Danny learn that Owens was planning on leaving the country with Nicole (Amanda Schull) and track her down at the airport. She cops to the plot to extort her own father, which touches a nerve with McGarrett, so Danno books her.

Later, back Five-0 HQ, McGarrett and Danno settle in for a very meta CHiPs marathon, leading to a debate over who would be Poncho and who would be Wilcox.

Breakdown:

As out-of-the-box, if you’ll forgive the horrendous pun, as this episode was, it was one of the most enjoyable, well-rounded hours of "Hawaii Five-0" to date.

Everyone got a chance to shine. We went a little bit deeper into Chin Ho’s mysterious backstory, got to see Kono go through some cop growing pains with her older cousin offering his unwavering support, McGarrett’s daddy issues came to the forefront and Danno got in a record number of wisecracks. If that isn’t the recipe for a great episode of "Hawaii Five-0," you can dump a bucket of shave ice over my head.

As I alluded to before, the premise for the caper of the week, a head in a box found after a routine traffic stop turns into a tragedy, is pretty wild. But let’s imagine all those traffic stops Chin Ho and Kono have made that we haven’t seen, where some ditzy broad forgot to put on her turn signal. Or that dopey college kid who blew a stop sign. So yeah, once in a while there’s a severed head in the car….I guess the odds are there.

I honestly had no idea where things were going to go in this episode ( ("He Kane Hewa’ole" means "An Innocent Man" by the way), but I like where they ended up. Unlike the whodunit that lead to the ridiculous "honeymoon killer" from a few episodes back, the idea of a selfish daughter using her dying husband to extort five million bucks from her rich dad seems plausible enough. As for McGarrett busting out his fluent Mandarin? Weeeeeelll…yes the guy’s a Navy SEAL and all but…ok.

I’ve griped a bit about Masi Oka’s cartoonish medical examiner, Max Bergman in the past and I’ll do the same now. But the look on McGarrett’s face as Dr. Bergman went over his findings made me chuckle.

As for McGarrett, I’m liking the character more and more. As we delve deeper into his daddy issues, we get to see the human side of the rough and tumble Navy man. While Danno insists on going by the book, it’s often McGarrett’s instincts that bring in the bad guys. But the fun part is watching these two go back and forth. Who’s Wilcox and who’s Poncho? Who cares, when you’ve got Danno and McGarrett.